White Paper 034 Addendum 27 (rev 1): Menu settings for Panasonic P2 AJ-HPX3000

Alan Roberts

Abstract

A brief assessment was made on a production sample of the AJ-HPX3000 (serial number 17TKA0067), a HDTV camcorder with a Canon HA18x7.6 HD lens. It is very similar in form and function to the HPX2100 and HDX900, sharing many features and having a very similar menu set.

The camera has full 1920x1080 sensors (CCD) and operates at the 1080-line HDTV standards, at both 29.97 and 25Hz. It can also be switched between interlace (50i, 59.94i) and progressive (25psf, 29.97psf, and 23.98psf in both 2:3 and 2:3:3:2 pull-down) modes, but not to 720-line HDTV. It can generate a “film look” in the camera, and has specific “film-look” gamma curves that incorporate many of the contrast handling features of earlier cameras, making it a great deal easier to set up.

The recording system is either the conventional DVCProHD format (8-bits, 1440x1080, 6.7:1 compression at 29.97Hz, 6.3:1 at 25Hz) or the newer AVC-Intra (10-bits, full resolution, H.264, I-frame only) onto solidstate P2 cards (5-cage slots in the camera). It does not have variable-speed capability. Sensitivity is specified as F/10 at 2000lux, power consumption 44 watts, weight 4.5kg without lens or viewfinder.

It is a little larger than the HDX900, being wider to accommodate the P2 cards instead of the tape mechanism, and has HDSDI output. It has many internal menus for setting the performance, such that it can then be used without external controls. It is not ideally suited to multi-camera operation (being a camcorder) but has enough features to make multi use possible. Monitoring and connectivity have been improved over previous Panasonic models; it will genlock to either analogue HD Y or analogue composite (PAL or NTSC as appropriate); there are two video outputs, one switchable between HDSDI, SDI (appropriate downconversion), and composite (PAL or NTSC), the other between HDSDI and HD analogue Y for monitoring; it has a IEEE1394 (Firewire) output that will feed and control an external recorder. It has a LCD side-panel, useful for menu setting etc.

There is an 8-second video cache memory. Using this, it is possible to record up to 8 seconds of events that occurred before pressing “Record”. The same circuitry is also used to provide a “slow-shutter” in which adjacent frames are summed to produce smeared pictures and reduced noise (or extra gain). The camera section has 14-bit ADC’s that deliver better noise performance than in earlier models.

In this setup, the gamma correction and knee are adjusted to capture almost 2 stops of overload, and 1 stop of underexposure, to mimic film performance.

This revision contains amended settings for both detail enhancement and colour matrix, resulting from field experience, and a second test session (serial number J8TK0012) joint with the HPX2700 and HPX3700. Encouragingly, the settings for each of these three cameras work well with the others, resulting from the use of a common signal processing system across the range of cameras.

Download White Paper 034 Addendum 27 (rev 1): Menu settings for Panasonic P2 AJ-HPX3000

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